The present invention relates to a forklift truck having a tilting mechanism and a lifting mechanism.
A forklift truck is known which has a lifting mechanism that lifts or lowers a fork of the truck for placing a load on a pallet onto a shelf and removing such load from the shelf. The forklift truck also has a tilting mechanism that tilts the fork frontward and rearward for preventing the load from falling off from the pallet. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-295800 discloses a forklift truck equipped with a tilting mechanism having a leveling pushbutton switch which is operated to cause the fork being tilted to be stopped automatically when the fork reaches its horizontal position. Thus, the truck operator can move the fork to its horizontal position easily without making visual adjustment of the tilt angle of the fork.
In order to ensure safety and stability in loading operation of the forklift truck, it is important to consider the lifted position or height of the fork at which the fork should start to be tilted. However, the above Publication gives no account of the tilting operation in connection with the lifting operation.
The present invention is directed to providing a forklift truck that provides safety and stability in the loading operation by allowing the fork to be tilted in dependence on the lifted position of the fork.